


Macbeth: A Feminist Criticism

by AlexSmithxox



Series: Essays [2]
Category: Macbeth - Shakespeare, No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Essays, Feminism, I was high, academic essay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 05:39:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14970242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSmithxox/pseuds/AlexSmithxox
Summary: I was high and this was for class. I know there are errors; I don’t care. This is a purely academic essay on how The Tragedy of Macbeth is a misogynist’s fantasy.





	Macbeth: A Feminist Criticism

**Author's Note:**

> Once again: I was high. When I’m high I get philosophical.

Macbeth: A Feminist Criticism

   Feminism is a social theory that describes the effort to bring equality to males and females and allow a balance of rights for both. It allows for people of all types to bring more ethical and moral decisions to the forefront of this political world and allow for them to be assessed in their entirety. When analyzed through the lens of a feminist _The Tragedy of Macbeth_ can be interpreted as a piece of text that shows the prominent roles between men and women of the 11th century and this time period. William Shakespeare’s work may also be regarded as an excuse for prejudiced people to deny the feminine population the authority to hold a position of power. The simple and complex characters who represent femininity in this play have set roles that can be considered stereotypical and inaccurate in modern society.

   Lady MacDuff is the one female character that performs her role with decorum, not dabbling in the dark arts nor playing a hand in a murder of a nobleman and this shows how women were expected to act in the 11th century. She is the embodiment of outdated femininity that would have been acceptable at that time, how a woman should be seen but not heard, and yet she is killed. Lady MacDuff ponders her situation after the supposed treason of her husband by saying “I have done no harm. But I remember now I am in this earthly world, where to do harm is often laudable, to do good sometime accounted dangerous folly” (4.2.82-85). Her understanding of the world is through a slightly cynical view wherein it a person can do harm and be praised but another can do good and be scorned. Unlike the other women who have been traitors to the crown, she has remained clean and even snubbed her husband for his actions. She contemplates why her station is forcing her to act as though she has conspired with MacDuff by asking her cousin helplessly, “Why then, alas, do I put up that womanly defense, to say I have done no harm” (4.2.85-87). She questions Ross about the position she has found herself in, where she has to defend herself rather than her husband doing it for her. In today's society, Lady MacDuff’s station would be outdated and condemned for its blaming of women based on their male companion’s actions.

    Lady Macbeth’s actions and the way she conducts herself can be assessed as a perversion of femininity, innocence, and motherhood; she is what discriminatory men conjure in their mind when they hear of powerful women. By way of illustration, Lady Macbeth shows her loyalty to despicable forces when she states that, “I have given suck, and know how tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me. I would, while it was smiling in my face, have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums and dashed the brains out, had I so sworn as you have done to this” (1.7.62-67). Her tainted trust in Macbeth and the Weïrd Sisters demonstrates the misogynistic theory of how subductive power corrupts the female mind. Once the homicide was committed, Lady Macbeth puts up the façade of having a stable mind and this is shown when she tells her husband that, “a little water clears us of this deed. How easy it is, then" (2.2.67-68). Her control of the situation contrasts her husbands worry over the inability to say words of holy prayer. However, this control falls when she is her most vulnerable state, sleep. Haunted by her wrongdoings, Lady Macbeth suffers during the sleep that her husband has murdered. Her unconscious mind reveals her inner turmoil by ranting and saying, “out, damned spot! out, I say![…] Yet who would have thought the old man to have had so much blood in him” (5.1.37). Feminist social theory of the present could analyze how Lady Macbeth betrays her king as a way to show that even the kindest of people can possess the cruelest of hearts instead of the declaration that powerful women are morally disturbed women.

   Unlike Lady Macduff, the Weїrd Sisters are an example of the skewed power that comes from dealing with a tempting source such as Hecate while the goddess herself can also be categorized as the epitome of the evil that can found when women have power. When Macbeth and Banquo first encounter the Weїrd Sisters, Banquo’s first instinct is to criticize their appearance by declaring that, “you should be women, and yet your beards forbid me to interpret that you are so” (1.3.47-49). The three women who neglect to speak first when the two thanes arrive at Dunsinane hill and yet they are judged on physical features of the face. When scrutinized, the beards on the sister’s faces may only be a trait added on by Shakespeare to show that these women are more unsightly than the other women that appear in the text. Hecate goes on a tirade about the folly made by her three followers and asks, “have I not reason, beldams as you are? [...] and I, the mistress of your charms, the close contriver of all harms, was never called to bear my part, or show the glory of our art” (3.5.2-9). The Goddess Hecate, who gave her wicked powers to the three sisters, is the only being in this play who is not mortal, yet is only shown in this fleeting scene. Her only appearance is brief and forgettable even though her actions help the development of Macbeth’s madness. The Wayward Sisters; who are ostracized for their knowledge of future tiding, ties to the necromantic deity, and their distinct appearance of age, may be seen presently as they are portrayed in the book. Modern society still scorns those who claim to know what is to come and categorized as malevolent despite the advancement in the social structures.

   Lady Macduff, the stereotypic, dependant, nurturing woman receives the punishment for her husband’s supposed rebellion against the crown. On the opposing end of the spectrum sits Lady Macbeth whose role in this tragedy can be described in one word as reprehensible. The Weïrd Sisters, the ones to help plant false security into the mind of the man who had already murdered numerous people. Finally, Hecate, the goddess of necromancy, witchcraft, and ghosts grants demonic powers to the three sisters that allow them to see the distant future. These women are the four that exemplify femininity despite their differences. _The Tragedy of Macbeth_ can be considered the manifestation of misogynistic views because of the social mantles that are placed upon the female characters compared to the ones found in today's society. This text describes an extremely sexist attitude, leaving the reader with the unsavory mindset that people of effeminate nature will be forever corrupt and immoral.

**Author's Note:**

> I got a 92% on this.


End file.
